ii2 TRAVELS THROUGH 

 muft difcharge them, and they prefentiy 

 ftarve in a country where agriculture was 

 declining, with every thing elfe. Every 

 ftep of this diftrefs prepares the way for a 

 new one, when the bufinefs in the manu- 

 facturing towns was got into this way. 

 Hardy enterprifing young fellows, without 

 capitals, by deceiving people, get into hiili- 

 nefs ; they make bad goods, but fell cheap. 

 This may fupport them for a while, but it 

 is death to the trade. All reputation is 

 prefently gone. How, in this flate, it is 

 poflible, in ten or twelve years, to regain 

 all the ground that is loft, I cannot con- 

 ceive : the home-confumption may certainly 

 be, in a manner, at command, by prohi- 

 biting foreign fabrics -, but the export trade 

 muft fuffer greatly j much muft get into* 

 frem channels, from whence it will hardly 

 return, and others will be totally loft. In 

 fact, I have been allured in France, that 

 they never knew an inftance of a manufac- 

 ture flourishing highly, and deftroyed, that 

 ever revived of itfelf, without the peculiar 

 care and affiftance of the Crown. There 

 is not one of the manufactures eftablimed 

 by Colbert, which became flourishing in 



Louis 



